The invention relates to an interactive audiovisual system and, more particularly, to an interactive audiovisual system employing a voice recognition unit and a programmable videodisc player.
There is an increasing need in various fields of education, and particularly in professional education, to provide learning opportunities in a realistic environment without the risk of harm caused by improper student action. For example, it is extremely desirable for medical students to interact with patients at an early stage in their educational process to develop practical experience and provide a foundation to which the students' academic education can be related. Although traditional forms of medical education allow students to interact with actual patients under the supervision of a physician, in order to avoid risk to the patient the medical student is prohibited from directly making independent decisions involving treatment of the patient.
Various forms of simulation of the student-patient interaction are known in the prior art. For example, existing systems are known which employ a programmable videodisc (player) under the control of a personal computer to receive student input commands through a keyboard or touch-screen CRT input device. Although existing systems can often provide useful educational experiences for the student, it is desirable to provide a more natural means of interaction for the student so as to increase the realism and maximize the effectiveness of the educational method. It is also desirable to provide a continuous audiovisual display of stored dramatic scenes to heighten the illusion of an actual physician-patient relationship. It is further desirable to increase the realism of an interactive audiovisual system such that the outcome of the displayed audiovisual drama will be influenced by, but not completely determined by, student input to the system.